A pained gasp escaped Tori as she lifted her shirt above her head before tossing it into a plastic laundry bin. Closing her eyes she bent down at her waist from her sitting position on Sam's bed and let out a shuttered breath. Tori had a high pain tolerance but she still felt the pain and it didn't help that she tears up easily.
As she put on a fresh white wife-beater, Tori caught a glance at her back in the mirror. Two thick horizontal bruising lines ran straight across her lower back, contrasting greatly against her pale skin.
'Freaking Sam,' Tori thought with no malice but a small smile as she headed into the smell bathroom having to step over some piles of clothes on the floor on the way. It wasn't that Sam put it there but rather Victoria, but she always cleaned up anyways so the owner of the apartment didn't mind…much.
Spotting a bra on the ground, Tori let out a laugh. Sam was going to eat her out for that, but she was pretty sure he enjoyed it. Perv.
She washed her face with cold water trying to erase all the tired away but could not do much with her aching back screaming at her. After patting her face dry with a towel, Tori let her hair down as she headed back down the staircase catching a bit of the conversation between Alan and Sam.
"Oh you like that? That was Marv's idea." Sam said with a hint of humor in his voice.
"With my help!" Tori added in with a smile as she jumped down the last few steps to smile at the two men. Well, technically she just took the video and bribed Sam into letting her go with him. Ha ha, Sam wasn't the only genius.
(Flashback 2 days before)
Sam squinted his eyes as he traced a pencil down the blueprints of the Encom building. Pulling out a ruler, he quickly wrote down the distance between the staircase entrance into the hallway to the doorway of the target room.
"Woof woof!"
Peaking over his shoulder, Sam raised an eyebrow at the sight.
Tori crouched on the floor in front of Marv's bed with her hands up next to her face in a bear-claw like standing. And she was barking into Marv's face. Barking. Really?
"Bark bark! Marv bark bark!"
Marvin let out a bark as he shook his tiny tail.
'God, what the hell?' He thought as he leaned back on the couch to watch the spectacle. Marv was technically his dog but he tended to be more responsive to Tori. 'I bet she trained him to be that way'
A shout of happiness left the hybrid woman as she gave Marv a quick treat.
"Who's a good boy?"
Bark bark!
Tori reached back and pulled out her cellphone and aimed it down at Marv.
"Again Marv! Bark bark!"
Bark bark!
"See, I told you I speak dog," Tori said as she turned to meet Sam's gaze with a smile.
"That's not speaking dog Tori," Sam stretched as he slumped down, "That's just you being plain crazy."
"Asshole, don't be jealous. Just for that I'm going to set this video to go off every five minutes on your phone and laptop."
"You're technologically retarded remember? Ah! Hey! That was in your own words!" Sam defended as she threw a dog treat at his head. As it bounced off his arm, Marv moved in quickly to eat the treat that fell onto the couch cushion. "Besides you couldn't program my laptop to do that even if…that's it."
Sam stood up with a lit up expression before turning to face Tori.
"Quick, send me that video."
"No."
"What? Why! You just said you were going to send it to me."
"I was until you wanted it. Now I'm not going to give it to you," Tori stated with a confident nod as she pocketed her cellphone.
"That is…if you let me come with."
"Come with what?" Sam put on a dumbfounded expression.
"Don't play dumb! I know you're going to use this video somehow with your plan."
"Fine! I'll just make my own video."
"Good luck with that."
So Sam spent the next thirty minutes chasing down Marv and trying to get him to bark. But nothing. Eventually he gave into Tori's request and set to put in the new variables into the equation.
Nerd.
(End Flashback)
"Hustled is more like it," Sam teased as he took a sip of his beer.
Victori walked over and sat herself down next to Sam and dignified herself by not choosing to answer but drink her own soda. Glancing over at Sam, she noticed a bit of a tick on his jaw. That meant Alan had tried to chew him down while she was gone about taking her along.
Feeling bad about stressing him out, she reached over pat his knee before taking the manual for the Ducati bike.
"Sam," Alan said with a tired look in his eyes as he let the unopened can of beer down.
Letting out a laugh of disbelief, Sam leaned back against the cushions of his couch. He stared at Alan before leaning forward again on his knees, careful not to spill his drink.
"Are we really gonna do this again? Do I really look like I'm ready to run a fortune five hundred company?" Sam emphasized with his hands as he took a sip.
"No," Alan and Tori chanted simultaneously. Alan glanced at her with a small smile which Tori returned without looking up from the manual as she thumbed through it.
Sam scrunched up his face in thought at Alan's answer, a bit surprised as he glanced down for a second.
"The company is pretty happy with where you are too," Alan continued as he tucked his hands into his pockets as he unconsciously glanced at the small space between Sam and Tori shortening before he could help himself.
"Not bad," Sam said faintly with a strange smile.
"See that way they could keep doing whatever they want….I guess what I find curious is the crazy charities, the annual prank on the company. You sure have an interesting way of being disinterested."
At this point Tori had stopped trying to understand what was in the manual and looked between the two men. The conversation was beginning to go downhill, like how it often did with every past conversation they had.
Sam at this point had put his can down and swung an arm to rest on the couch top behind Tori's shoulders while choosing to stare intensely at the page Tori had stopped at.
Before this conversation could end in another argument Tori slapped the manual closed loudly.
"Why are you here Alan?"
She didn't mean to sound as if she was mad but she was tired of hearing the same thing over and over. Watching Alan, Tori could feel Sam rest his forehead against the crook of her neck in thanks before looking up at his surrogate father again. His forehead was burning, he was really stressed.
Victoria watched as Alan pulled a small back device from his front pocket and showed it to Sam nervously.
"I was paged last night."
Wow.
Tori's and Sam's eyebrows shot up in amusement and slight shock. People still used those dinosaurs?
"Oh man, still rockin' the pager Al. Good for you," Sam let out a true laugh.
Laughter escaped the other two parties.
"Yeah your…your Dad once told me that I had to sleep with it," Alan looked down at the pager reminiscing, missing the look on Sam's face. Or rather the lack of.
"And I still do."
Sam's amused expression dropped just as fast as Tori's awe on the roof top. The notch on his jaw returned again only more prominently.
"The page came from your Dad's office at the arcade."
The manual dropped from Tori's limp hands as she stared at Alan in shock.
How was that even possible?
If it was even possible, Sam's face went stone cold.
"So?"
"So?" Alan echoed Sam in a softer voice.
"Sam, that would be impossible. Didn't you say that the place was shut down?" Tori voiced out in disbelief.
"She's right Sam, that number's been disconnected for twenty years."
"Sam, two nights before he disappeared he came to my house. I've cracked it! He kept saying," Alan said in a louder and stronger tone as he inched forward, "he was talking about genetic algorithms…"
Sam shook his head before dropping it against his chest.
Saddened by his posture, Tori reached over his slumped back and began rubbing down his spine in comfort.
A sigh left him before he looked back up.
"Quantum teleportation, he said he was going to change u-uh science, religion! He wouldn't have left that Sam." Alan walked around the table and sat on top of it to face Sam directly, "He wouldn't have left you."
"Alright Alan," Sam suddenly stood, stepping away from Tori's ministrations and onto the dock just outside the opened garage door, "you're the only one who still believes that."
Alan glanced at Tori's sad expression before turning to follow Sam with a determined look.
"He's either dead, or chilling in Costa Rica," Sam lifted his arms only to drop them to emphasize his point before turning to face Alan, "probably both!"
Sam's face portrayed a man beyond his years as his whole posture slumped down with a tired smile.
"I'm sorry. I'm tired, I smell like jail….let's just reconvene in another couple of years. Huh? What do you say?"
A statement covered as a question.
Sam looked down at Tori on the couch and could see the disappointment in her eyes. At him and Alan. Unable to keep her stare, he turned to face the bridge as he took a sip from his drink.
'Some night this turned out to be,' He thought sadly.
Tori pursed her lips together and stood silently. The conversation was obviously over.
Alan shuffled forward as he pulled a set of keys from his pocket.
"Here," He waited for Sam to turn around to show him the keys, "these are the keys to the arcade. I haven't gone over there yet. I thought you should be the one—"
"Alan." Sam interrupted, "you're acting like I'm going to find him sitting there at work. Just…hey kiddo, I lost track of time."
Sam caught the keys in a tight fist.
"Now, wouldn't that be something."
Alan left with a final smile at Sam and Tori.
Tori bid Alan goodnight before heading over to stand by Sam.
Walking up behind the boy wonder, Tori reached around and embraced his waist in a soft hug. They stood there quietly, listening to the faint sounds of the city and dock.
Bark!
Both adults looked down to see Marv looking up at them, barking for their attention.
Stepping away, Tori walked back into the building to leave Sam to his thoughts.
Sam could not help but feel pulled in opposite directions. There was no point in going back, there would be nothing. But if he didn't go, he would always be filled with the 'what if's.' But if he went, and there was nothing like he thought then the disappointment would be automatic. And he did not want to deal with his father, especially now after all these years.
"But you want something solid to believe in. Hard evidence to support what you already know…or prove yourself wrong," Tori's voice cut through to finish his thoughts.
The corner of Sam's lips twitched as he finished his drink before turning to see his long time friend standing by the couch with their jackets in one hand and their helmets in the other.
'I guess I know what she wants to do,' he thought faintly but gratefully.
Whatever they would find, he was glad she was coming. He wouldn't have it any other way.
